Part 1: Inyati Safari – Unbelievable

Sometimes the stars align creating an incredible experience. For us, it was our time at Inyati. The weather, our accommodations, our “safari drive” mates, our safari ranger and tracker and finally, and most importantly, the animal sightings were all amazing – or as Peter/Dawn, our safari drive mates, would say “UNBELIEVABLE”.

Inyati is a small game lodge (only 11 chalets) situated in the western sector of the Sabi Sand Nature Reserve which is a private game reserve sharing a common unfenced boundary with the Kruger National Park. It spans 50,000 hectares (~124,000 acres) and has traversing rights with 5 other safari lodge properties which makes the drives very interesting. Also, the rangers from these lodges keep in touch by radio which increases the chances of spotting the animals (as our Ranger put it “more eyes looking”).

The accommodations are not fancy – more rustic African which we like…. but it’s the property we love. The views from the outdoor dining room and also from our chalet are beautiful. It is common to see animals while relaxing between drives.

The safari vehicles hold 10 people (3 rows and the front seat), but Inyati only puts 6 people in a vehicle (leaves middle seat empty) which makes it so much better for viewing. As couples left and new ones checked in, our numbers varied – we had 2 drives with 6 people, 2 drives with 4 people and then 2 drives with 6 people. With us the whole time were our drive mates Peter and Dawn, who were great to be with. Peter would exclaim numerous times during the drive “unbelievable” – which also became our way of describing the sightings.

We had the most amazing ranger and tracker this year – Rodger and Qolani. We had met Rodger previously at the lodge and have seen his photos posted on Instagram. This year we requested him and we are so glad we did.

And now for the sightings. Not only did we see the “Big 5” (Elephant, Rhinoceros, Cape Buffalo, Lion, and Leopard), we saw them numerous times. Big 5 was first coined by big-game hunters more than 100 years ago as the most dangerous animals to hunt on foot and now it is more a marketing reference.

Big 5 are great, but there was so much more to see – Peter was listing the animals we saw and just from his list we saw 32 different animals/birds – unbelievable (thank you Peter for keeping a list).

We took so many photos – below is just a sampling. Also, if you are on Facebook I will be posting “reels” with our videos. I am new at this so my reels are a “bit raw” but still fun to view.

First the lions – the “king of the jungle”. Some of the shots were taken at night on the way back to the lodge. We were so close to the lions – to quote Peter “we could have reached out and touched them”.

Next the White Rhinos which are characterized by a square lip – the “grass eaters”

Number 3 of the “Big Five” is the Cape Buffalo – one of Larry’s favourites

With so many photos, we decided to post in threes parts. This ends Part 1; Part 2 will feature the elephants and the leopards.